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$15 Minimum Wage has Two Initiatives? – Socialism vs. Democracy

$15 Minimum Wage has Two Initiatives? –Socialism vs. Democracy

The Charlette Report

by The Charlette Report

Oz Scenario

With a focus now on the threat of a $15 Minimum Wage Initiative, I found the only initiative filed with the Emerald city to date is numbered 104 with the City Clerk’s office, filed Dec. 11 in 2013. I was surprised to find the initiative was NOT filed by $15Now, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant or Socialist Alternative but exclusively by Elizabeth Campbell, Principal of Democracy Workshop which runs the $15in2014 campaign.

Elizabeth Campbell of $15in2014 and Democracy Workshop

I was able to talk to Elizabeth Campbell today. She is well versed in filing Seattle Initiatives having filed an anti-tunnel Initiative which gathered more than 21,000 signatures and indeed herself drafted PDF Initiative 104. The initiative calls for increasing minimum wage to chain restaurants and excludes small businesses which gross under 1 million annually and excludes non-profits.

I-104 – Follow the Yellow Brick Road
“This measure would require chain-restaurant, chain-retail, hospitality, sports-entertainment, and transportation employers, along with the City, to pay a minimum hourly wage of $15 to most employees, and $11.25 or more to trainees. Other businesses would pay $1.18 above the State’s minimum hourly wage. These rates would increase annually based on the consumer price index. The measure reduces City business tax rates, and increases the threshold amount that businesses must earn to be taxed, from $100,000 to $250,000.”

Dorothy! You had the power to go home all along!
The wording of Initiative 104 is vastly different from what we have been hearing and frankly looked like a sweet deal to small businesses as it excludes small businesses and non-profits in addition to reducing their B&O and square footage taxes in half.
It looks like small businesses and non-profits didn’t have anything to fear. I-104 is only directed to the large chain businesses and not small businesses or non-profits which would incur an extreme hardship in increasing their labor wages over 60%. So I have to ask why the big previous deceptive drive for $15 now for everyone with no exceptions? Arggg! Toto! We’ve been fooled! But I guess we had to find that out for ourselves!

There is no place like home!
According to Campbell and her initiative, the measure allows for exceptions and just halving the taxes to small businesses would return $160 million back to the small businesses. Looks like small local mom and pop that buy from local farms will be saved from that twister! (The threat of a 60% wage hike was all just alot of hot wind anyway.)

Kshama Sawant of Socialist Alternative and $15 Now

Sawant Monopolizing the Conversation?
I asked Campbell why the big difference in the Initiative and the campaign? Does she work with or collaborate at all with the “$15 Now” campaign? She explained that Sawant and $15Now” are on their own path, they have their own ideology. To demonstrate their disparity, Campbell has filed a complaint against Sawant with the City Ethics and Elections Commission against Sawant for using city resources for non-city business reported first by the Seattle Times and now by The Stranger. “They [Socialist Alternative] are not a collaborative organization”.

Campbell doesn’t even like the fact the minimum wage committee has been meeting in secret with no apparent reason given many small businesses have spoken up and have been vocal. Perhaps they need a little more courage?

Are you a Good Witch or a Bad Witch or a Wizard that can grant my wish?
Democracy vs. SocialismElizabeth Campbell’s group is “$15in2014” which is listed as the prime sponsor on Initiative 104. Campbell said Democracy Workshop is a non-profit community organization filed with the Public Disclosure Commission and the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission. She plans tomorrow to refile the initiative into two parts, one for just the tax portion and one part for the minimum wage to meet requirements.
I asked Campbell why she isn’t “part of the conversation” given she is the person who filed the initial $15 initiative and she said she has had some outreach and discussions with the committee.
If Sawant’s group “ $15Now” files themselves that will make two initiatives campaigning for minimum wage potentially at the ballot.

Another article on the initiative by Washington Policy’s Erin Shannon already nicely outlines the initiative:
http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/blog/post/15-minimum-wage-initiative-filed-seattle

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray

Whatever will the Great Wizard of Oz Murray do now?

Ok, so this was just a small scare for Munchkinland in thinking they would be forced to raise their wages over 60%.
The Tinman will find his heart and the Cowardly Lion will find his courage to speak up.

So click your heels. It was just a bad dream, it was never going to happen. I could never see Seattle City Council and the Mayor passing a $15 minimum wage twister damaging all the small business Munchkins and non-profits. Even I can see in my foggy crystal ball the writing in the sky Sawant and “$15Now” NOT accepting the wage inequality committee’s proposal and filing themselves their own ballot measure…so Toto, it looks like there will be two.

The Charlette Report is written by Charlette LeFevre who writes on social issues and good food and is a huge Wizard of Oz fan. Charlette can be reached at seattlecharlette@gmail.com

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.